“First, I wouldn’t be in the position to make this career move and advancement without the deep support, mentorship and friendship that I have received and enjoyed from Doc Rivers. I want to thank Doc for helping prepare me so well for this next step and challenge,” said Lue. “Cleveland is a great opportunity. I am looking forward to joining Coach Blatt, David Griffin and the entire Cavaliers organization at a very exciting and promising time for the franchise. Through numerous discussions with David and Griff, I felt Cleveland is a great situation for me. I believe my background will help me play a key part in helping achieve the vision that the leadership of this franchise has for its team. I can’t wait to get to work with Coach Blatt and our players.”

According to Wojnarowski, David Blatt and Lue have been in contact frequently, and Cavs GM David Griffin pushed for the hiring of both coaches. The offer for Lue is expected to be a “financially strong assistant coaching package.”

Certainly, this is a positive and shocking move. Blatt is 55 years old, but has no NBA coaching experience. Lue is an up-and-coming coaching prospect who was in hot demand this offseason. He played in the league for 11 seasons as well, mostly as a backup point guard. That point guard experience sure could come in handy with coaching Kyrie Irving.

“Over the past several weeks, it became clear that Ty could play a key role in our team’s future success,” said Griffin. “Ty fits our culture and vision for the franchise. His successful experience as both a player and coach is going to help us tremendously. Tyronn Lue joining Coach Blatt’s staff is more than exciting to all of us here in Cleveland. The leadership and knowledge of Ty is going to be critically important as we move into a new era of competitive Cavaliers basketball.”

The only hope is that this doesn’t lead to a too-crowded atmosphere on the Cavs bench. Last season, the team’s seven assistants were said to be the most in the league and a distraction among many in the infamous #seasonofhuh.

Jacob Rosen is a long-time contributor to WaitingForNextYear. He's also a writer online at SportsAnalyticsBlog and Nylon Calculus . An Akron native, Jacob is a current MBA student at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. You can follow him on Twitter @WFNYJacob or e-mail him at udjrosen(at)gmail(dot)com.

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Ease the transition for Blatt to the NBA + give Lue a better chance at a head job himself (out from Rivers’ shadow and will get more credit if Cavs rise then Clips maintain). Wins all around (at least we hope so).

Why pick 1 when you can have both? Now I see why the news conference was delayed so long. Great hire and a great plan. Now please, lets get this draft right!

saggy

yeah – Lue totally made the right move. When Blatt gets fired after next year he’ll be first in line!

RGB

Until he drafts Bruno Shavers from North Dakota Barber College.

mgbode

it worked for Grant (after Ferry)….and it worked for Griffin (after Grant). No reason Gilbert’s hiring strategy cannot be extended to coaches.

mgbode

with a name like that you know he’s a natural!

THE_DDOJSIOC

This just might be encouraging, right? Sure we have Kyrie and

Harv 21

Well, Blatt certainly didn’t have to wait long for a rude initiation to the NBA. When you come in with no leverage they can seat your rival right next to you on the bench and give him a whistle in practice. Do not like this. All FO actions should be signalling their young players, who have already killed two coaches, that they must buy into a Euro coach with a different vision, that the coach is here long term. Lue presumably doesn’t know Blatt, what he does, how he thinks. This smacks of Gilbert hedging his bets, creating a safety net in case he needs course correction rather than going all in on Blatt. Wrong signal to the players, and not maximizing the chance of Blatt’s success.

Pat Leonard

I don’t know a lot about Tyronn Lue, but I know he’s been working with Doc Rivers who is primarily a defensive coach. I was thinking this might be a hire to get a good defensive mind next to David Blatt, who seems to be primarily known for his offense. This is all speculation because I really don’t know for sure, but I could see that being the case.

WFNY_DP

Hey, ease up on Bruno. He’s long, and his ceiling might be the highest of anyone in this draft because he’s so raw.

WFNY_DP

I understand your thesis here, but to me it feels more like a Ray Horton to Blatt’s Rob Chudzynski than a hedge on a bet (solidify the presumed weakness of a rookie head coach with someone who has some experience in the league). I dunno. Maybe I’m just one of those sheeple.

mgbode

But, red flags abound as his middle name is ‘Point’

RGB

He was cleared of all charges in that 62 point loss to Western Oregon Torah Institute.
He said he fouled out because he had a cold, and that’s why he only had 3 points.

mgbode

I’m not saying he did anything wrong, I’m just saying there was a ton of $$$ that changed hands for a NDBC game where they were the heavy favorites going in and Shavers was seen with a “That’s pride messing with you” T-shirt before the game.

Yeah, it's unsettling when we're betting on comeback years from a lot of key guys, be it Kipnis, Swisher, Bourn, McAllister, or Moss (from inj), or big improvement years from guys like Chiz, Bauer, Salaz...ok never mind that one.